This invention relates to a pants-type disposable wearing article for absorption and containment of bodily discharges.
Conventional pants-type disposable wearing articles comprise a liquid-pervious topsheet, a liquid-impervious backsheet and a liquid-absorbent panel interposed between these two sheets so as to define front and rear waist regions opposed to each other and a crotch region extending between these waist regions. The front and rear waist regions are connected to each other along transversely opposite side edge portions of these waist regions which are overlaid to form a waist-hole and a pair of leg-holes.
The leg-holes are surrounded by associated leg-surrounding flaps extending along outer edges of the associated side edge portions of the panel in a leg-surrounding direction. The leg-surrounding flaps have free side edge portions curving inwardly in a transverse direction from tops toward bottoms of the associated leg-holes so that a transverse dimension between the free side edge portions is minimized in the vicinity of the bottoms of the respective leg-holes. In this article of well known art, a transverse dimension of the crotch region is smaller than a transverse dimension each of the front and rear waist regions has. In other words, with the front and rear waist regions disconnected from each other and then developed, the article has a hourglass-like planar shape. Such pants-type wearing articles are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication Nos. 1999-104177A; 1999-104180A; 1999-155904A; and 1999-169403A.
When the above-cited wearing article of well known art is viewed from above the waist-hole being opened, it is found that the leg-holes are opened in the transverse direction of the article while the waist-hole is opened in the longitudinal direction of the article. With a consequence, the waist-hole is not in alignment with the leg-holes and the leg-surrounding flaps extending in the vicinity of the bottoms of the respective leg-holes lie ahead of the waist-hole. In the case of this article, there is an anxiety that the wearer's toes and/or heels might get stuck with the leg-surrounding flaps lying in the vicinity of the bottoms of the leg-holes as the wearer intends to guide his or her legs through the waist-hole then through the leg-holes. As a result, it is likely that the operation of wearing the article might be inconveniently retarded.
In this article, a transverse dimension of the crotch region in the vicinity of the bottoms of the respective leg-holes is larger than a transverse dimension of the wearer's crotch and the crotch region of the article can not be fitly put in the crotch of the wearer after the article has been put on the wearer's body. Consequently, the crotch region of the article becomes bulky and creates an uncomfortable feeling against the wearer. With the article, the leg-surrounding flaps are irregularly folded or the panel is formed with a plurality of irregular wrinkles as the crotch region of the article is squeezed in the crotch region of the wearer. These folds or wrinkles may sometimes deteriorate an excretion absorbing function in the crotch region and even allow the excretion to leak from the crotch region.
The transverse dimension of the wearer's crotch is generally in a range of 3–8 cm. In many of the articles on the market, the minimum dimension of the panel in the crotch region is generally in a range of 10–20 cm and the minimum dimension between the transversely opposite free outer side edge portions of the leg-surrounding flaps in the crotch region is generally in a range of 15–30 cm. In the articles on the market, therefore, the transverse dimension of the crotch region in the vicinity of the bottoms of the respective leg-holes is larger than the transverse dimension of the wearer's crotch.